Stephen Gregory Tynes, 29, whose address is listed in court documents as 1058 Tower Rd., Halifax, is charged with “willfully and without cause” of killing a cat belonging to Julie Chisholm and her two children.

Tynes was charged after witnesses said they saw a man coax a cat off a doorstep on Fairview Drive at about 3:20 a.m. July 21, after which he allegedly grabbed it by the hind legs, lifted it over his head and swung it down into the ground.

“He was my best friend,” Chisholm said, in an article published in the Truro Daily News a few days after the cat’s death.

“We had naps together, we ate together,” the mother of the young children said, regarding their three-year-old cat, Wrangler.